Over the centuries, obscure dialects from isolated communities all over the world have come and gone, dispersed for reasons as variable as the cultures. Empire-building and conquest of new lands is responsible for the deaths of language on every continent as powerful military, political, and religious forces decimated indigenous cultures. Advancements in agriculture sent entire populations of rural folks to urban centers in order to pursue a livelihood and feed their families, shedding their dialects for the popular nomenclature. Natural disasters like the 2004 tsunami and the 2010 earthquake in Haiti are just two examples of what types of catastrophe can dilute language and culture: After the recovery, no matter how well cities rebuild, communities will never be the same.

Lomavren, spoken in Armenia, had only 50 remaining speakers at last count.

With less than 200 speakers left, Ket can only be heard in a handful of villages in central Siberia.

There are 25 remaining speakers of Middle Chulym, or Os, a rare language also found in central Siberia.

The last speakers of Zoque, a language from Tabasco, Mexico, are two elderly men who refuse to speak to one another.

There are only about 200 remaining Sahaptin speakers, a dialect of the Native American Yakama Nation.

Some languages have enough speakers that a revival could happen, but other technicalities can hinder their progress. The Pirahã language, for example, has an estimated 250 to 380 speakers, but because it is not related to any other language, documenting it is incredibly complicated, if not impossible. It has no singular or plurals, no words for colors, and no words for numbers, meaning the Pirahã cannot be taught even the simplest math. It is also tonal – the word for "I" is distinguished from the word for "excrement" purely by the pitch of the speaker's delivery.

For other dying languages, there is hope. Speakers of the languages are helping researchers lead the way towards a revival.

"The people themselves have to choose to maintain it. That requires a lot of effort, both in producing materials that will be suitable for schooling, for example, and a lot of personal effort that the people themselves require to make real the desire that they have to maintain their language," [says Dr. Gregory Anderson of the Living Tongues Institute for Endangered Languages].

What's more, there could be more than language at stake, here. Within ancient words could be answers to questions present-day humans have. Anvita Abbi, a professor of linguistics at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, says the speech of hunter-gatherer societies carry an intimate, encoded understanding of the natural world and its biodiversity. Scientists have found small languages to be a veritable storehouses of local knowledge of medicinal plants and ecology. The bo language, which died with its oldest speaker Boa Sr in early February, had at least 67 words for varieties of birds and some 150 for fish. "There's a vast knowledge base slipping from our grasp," says Abbi.

With enough effort, disappearing dialects can flourish again. One of the great examples for the successful revival of a language in recent times is Welsh, the language of Wales in Great Britain. Just 20 years ago it was on the verge of extinction, but now it has hundreds of thousands of speakers. Welsh had one thing that most endangered languages do not: enthusiastic government support. Financial support from the government assured the revival of the Welsh language became a reality.

1 comment:

This is entirley true, and i do agree that money is a big issue, I am an enrolled member of the Confederated tribes of Warm Springs (central oregon), where sahptin is our native language,and there are only 22 fluent speakers left, and trying to preserve it is very hard because the youth dont care about the language. I myself, am not a fluent speaker, but i know part of the language, which the Warm Springs, Yakima, and Umitlla share. The Nez perce speaks Sahptin, but a totally different dialect. Hopfully, one day, we'll have a generation that will learn the Ichishkin language. Teechmeengsh sinwit nami Awatamanwit (At the time of creation, the creator placed us in this land and he gave us the voice of this land and that is our law). Axwai mash An'cha qinuta.